Suspect in murder trial won't face death penalty

Wednesday

Feb 20, 2013 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - The district attorney is not seeking the death penalty for Jason Ross Gilley, accused of raping and murdering a 23-year-old woman found in a cornfield months after her disappearance, prosecutors said.

Jennie Rodriguez-Moore

STOCKTON - The district attorney is not seeking the death penalty for Jason Ross Gilley, accused of raping and murdering a 23-year-old woman found in a cornfield months after her disappearance, prosecutors said.

Dalene Carlson had moved to the area from a small town in Idaho shortly before she was reported missing by her Stockton relatives in August 2011.

Carlson was last seen by her friends leaving Finnegan's Pub and Grill with Gilley.

Gilley, 27, is charged with first-degree murder and special circumstances of kidnapping and rape that made him eligible for the death penalty.

Prosecutor Robert Himelblau said recently the department has decided to pursue life in prison without the possibility of parole for Gilley.

Carlson's decomposing remains were discovered in an Escalon cornfield two months after her disappearance.

Up to that point, investigators did not have enough evidence to show foul play, prosecutors said.

Gilley had been arrested shortly after Carlson's disappearance after giving conflicting statements to investigators. But he had been released without charges, because Carlson's body hadn't been found.

Prosecutors now say evidence points to Gilley, including security footage from the bar and a grocery store that show Carlson and Gilley were together the last day she was seen.

Bullet casings found at the crime scene match those fired from an heirloom gun Gilley had used around the time Carlson went missing, according to tests from a state crime lab. Cellphone data also places Gilley at the scene, Himelblau has said.